1. This invention relates generally to the dispensing field and more specifically to the fluent material sprinkling, spraying, and/or defusing art therein.
2. One usage of the feeder/applicator of the instant invention comprises dispensing of granular materials at a controlled rate and in a manner to provide even or desired varied rate discharge of granular material onto a predetermined dispensed granular material receiving area.
Various forms of spreaders for granular and other similar materials heretofore have been designed such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,664,031, 3,441,224, 3,652,019, 3,687,376, 4,027,627 and 4,442,979. However, these previously known devices are not specifically designed to carry out one very important possible usage of the instant invention, which usage comprises the controlled dispensing and spreading of granular batch to be melted over the top of the quantity of batch being melted within a melter and in such a manner to enable the dispensed batch to maintain a "cake" covering or layer over the heated granular batch being melted in the melter, with such "cake" covering or layer actually functioning as an insulation blanket against the radiation of large quantities of heat from the melter and thus conserving considerable quantities of energy consumed in the process of the generation of the necessary heat to melt the batch within the melter.